We must truly value our children in wake of Cavan murder-suicide

Society must stop attributing familicide to mental health factors alone and recognise it as unacceptable child murder, writes Paul Gilligan

The deaths of the Hawe family and in particular of the three boys Niall, Ryan, and Liam, have caused shock and disbelief across the country.

Over the last 18 years, more than 36 children in Ireland have been killed by their parents, and while there are no international comparators, the deputy state pathologist Michael Curtis reacting to one such death commented that “he was struck by the numbers of murder-suicides in families in Ireland since he took up his position in 2004”.